1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer programs and in particular to software for providing passwords from a client computer to different servers, databases and applications and other services accessed on and inter- or intra-net.
2. Description of Related Art
As computer users operate in a more "network centric" environment, they will be logging on to more and more servers, accessing more and more data bases and applications all through a web interface on our personal computers or network computers. This presents two problems with using passwords.
A first problem is that there may be different passwords on each server, data base or application. The user's intention may be to have all of the passwords be the same password of each server, data base or application but this is not always possible because each server, data base or application may have different naming conventions for their passwords. This means that the user is faced with the problem of having to deal with multiple passwords to access servers, data bases and applications.
A second problem is that there are different expiration times for passwords issued for different servers, data bases and applications. Thus, maintaining all of these passwords become cumbersome.
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Vol. 36, No. 3 (March 1993) entitled "Temporary Global Passwords" discloses the use of a temporary global password which is utilized after a user logs on to a terminal with an authenticated one-time password token. There is no disclosure of discrimination of service access among different users, and the users never see the assigned temporary global password.
Accordingly, there is a need for a universal password system which can differentiate among different user groups to supply the real passwords for access to the network services for which the user groups are authorized.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process and system for providing passwords from a client computer to different servers, databases and applications and other services accessed on and inter- or intra-net.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a process and system wherein a universal or virtual password can be assigned which would activate the real password for the authorized network system being accessed.
A further object of the invention is to provide a universal password system which can differentiate among different user groups with regard to authorized access to the various network services which may be accessed by a single client computer.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a process and system accessible by the client computer to change the real passwords associated with each of the network services.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.